WSJ’s Gershkovich not cooperating with book, documentary

Evan Gershkovich

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is not cooperating on either the paper’s documentary or the book, sources tell Variety and has his own film and book in the works, sparking tensions inside the newsroom over the competing projects, reports Tatiana Siegel of Variety.

Siegel reports, “It is not uncommon for dueling Hollywood projects to emerge following a high-profile news event. For instance, the 2018 Thai cave rescue spawned multiple onscreen incarnations including Ron Howard’s ‘Thirteen Lives’ and the Netflix series ‘Thai Cave Rescue,’ while competing Harvey Weinstein exposés in the New York Times and New Yorker resulted in separate books, a Universal film and HBO docuseries. What is unique is for the rivaling efforts to come from the same news outlet. Adding a further wrinkle, CAA represents all of the parties including Gershkovich, Parkinson, Hinshaw, the Journal and even Gershkovich’s mother, who has her own book in the works.

“‘Evan will not participate, and it’s put everybody in a very funny spot,’ says one knowledgeable source who adds that the Journal had spent a significant amount of money to capture footage for the documentary. (The Journal and all parties, including Gershkovich, declined comment.)”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.